


Forever

by ChrysosArgentum02



Category: Women's Soccer RPF
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-01
Updated: 2020-10-01
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:42:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,230
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26739796
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChrysosArgentum02/pseuds/ChrysosArgentum02
Summary: This was a fanfic that someone (who asked to remain anonymous) sent me. They didn't want to post it themselves but I thought it was cute and wanted to share it!Fran and Maren have been playing on Chelsea together for a while and have become close to each other, but aren't yet dating. Maria thinks they're both idiots and wants to give her oblivious friends a "small" nudge in the right direction.
Relationships: Frank Kirby/Maren Mjelde
Comments: 1
Kudos: 31





	Forever

**Author's Note:**

> **Once again, this awesome fic was not written by me but I was given permission to share it. I only did some basic proof reading and editing.**

When Maria texted Fran asking her to come over, the latter thought nothing of it. A nice visit from a relatively new teammate was a pleasant thought, so of course Fran happily approved the Norwegian’s sudden visit. She’d rather have another particular Norwegian showing up at her doorstep, but that’s besides the point. 

Actually, that’s exactly the point, as Maria nearly knocking down the door and immediately giving Fran an inquisitive look would suggest. 

Fran should’ve seen it coming. All roads led to... whatever it was her and Maren were. She didn’t particularly know. It was the way that the two of them would hold eye contact a bit longer than what friends do when they emerge out of the stadium after practice. The way that they made sure their shoulders brushed up against each other’s when they sat next to each other during team meetings. The way that when the team decided to go out for dinner on a rainy night and they were all waiting to cross the street and a car whisked by where they were standing, sending a Noah’s ark amount of water barreling towards them, Maren quickly snaking her arm around Fran’s waist and pulling Fran into her body protectively. The height difference made it easy, and Fran so badly wanted to tuck her head under Maren’s chin and stay there, snug. But alas, those moments don’t last forever.

Such an interesting concept, forever. What counts as forever? Is it your whole life? Someone else's? Is it a timespan? Or just a feeling? What a fascinating word. Forever.

Forever. 

Forever.

Forever. 

That’s the word Maria repeated when her and Maren arrived back at their shared apartment and Maria concluded that the grime-filled street water was going to stain her jeans forever. 

"What a national team captain you are, Mjelde," Maria teased. "Always looking out for your fellow teammates. Or maybe just one in particular?"

But before she could even hear Maria’s last sentence, Maren was bounding up the stairs into her bedroom to swiftly get changed and tell Fran she already missed her. Clingy? Quite. But right after receiving that text, Fran decided to spontaneously FaceTime Maren, a blush rushing across her cheeks as her screen was enveloped by the face of the tired but still content looking Norwegian.

“Miss me that much?”

A couple weeks after their situation in the rain, it was Maren the one asking that question. Both of them had been away from Chelsea for national team duties and much to their chagrin, Emma Hayes had instructed all her players to immediately head back home after they arrived back in London to get proper rest. Were they both thinking about pulling some Romeo and Juliet style antics and disobeying orders? Maybe. But they figured that they were adults, that they could live not seeing each other for one more day.

When Maria and Maren entered into the Chelsea locker room for practice the next day, Fran had to pretend to be equally excited to see both of them - don’t get her wrong, she absolutely adored Maria and was excited as ever to see her, but she couldn’t shake the feeling of wanting to be hugging someone else when she enthusiastically embraced Maria. She gave the same embrace to Maren, perhaps held it a second longer, before turning to her own locker and finish getting ready. Practice started, and they fell back into their familiar routine. Quick glances, brushed shoulders, comforting encouragement. While gathering her stuff after practice, Fran made an offhand comment to whoever could hear in the locker room that it would be great if someone could help her carry a bag to her car. 

It’s almost laughable how quickly Maren declared she was up for the task.

It’s also almost laughable how quickly they managed to snuggle into a tight embrace after they got back to Fran’s car, with Fran barely giving Maren enough time to put down the bag (which Fran definitely could’ve carried by herself) before wrapping her arms around the grinning midfielder. They stayed in each other’s arms for a solid minute before begrudgingly releasing, knowing that Maria or Millie would be on their asses as soon as possible about taking a suspiciously long time. 

“Miss me that much?”

“You have no idea.” 

It’s hard to say when Maria actually figured it out.

She supposes that the only definitive moment of realization she can clearly point out was when she spotted the two of them in the stadium’s break room one day after a bout of strength training. They were sitting on a couch facing away from the door and seemed to be in their own little world. That, or the fact that the sound of Maria opening the room’s less than quiet door somehow didn’t cause any reaction from the two of them for some reason. 

The two of them were sitting together, shoulders pushed up against each other, with Fran’s head resting softly on Maren’s shoulder while she traced the Norwegian’s tattoo. 

Maria gave herself a headache with how wide her eyes went.

Pulling herself together, she creeped towards the door again and silently slid out into the hallway, trying to make sense of the image in her mind. She couldn’t meet Maren’s eyes after conditioning when Maren asked her if she was ready to head home, tugging her Chelsea duffel bag up her shoulder, twirling the car keys with her fingers, and raising an eyebrow at her seemingly shaken teammate. Maria wasn’t any less shaken when the two of them were saying goodbye to the rest of their teammates for the day and she spotted Maren draw Fran closer to her when they were already hugging. 

It’s not that Maria wasn’t supportive. She was fully supportive, she loved her two friends regardless of who they were with. She just needed a few moments to process it. 

And by a few moments, she meant the entire car ride, blankly staring out the side window, eyes dancing with the rain droplets that seemed to sliver down the window. 

The pattering of English rain seemed to overshadow Maren’s attempts at conversing with Maria while on their route back to the apartment. These car rides were often filled with fast-paced Norwegian chattering, laughter, the flickering of radio stations, and occasional realization that they both missed home. It felt like they were constantly being pushed and pulled to different locations. But that was the life of an athlete. During your career, it was hard to stay in one place forever.

Forever. 

Forever. 

Forever.

“You love her, don’t you?”

Who knew that cars could swerve that fast?

Once Maren corrected the car and Maria stopped saying her last rites, Maria asked the question again. Well, it wasn’t actually a question. 

“You love her.”

“What the fu-”

“Say it.”

“Who’re we talking about?”

“You know exactly who I’m talking about.”

“I think Emma’s a great manager, love might be too strong of a word thoug-”

“Don’t you dare play dumb.” 

“If we’re in the realm of playing things, I didn’t even know there was a game going on.”

“Kirby. Fran Kirby. You know her? Shorter than us, brown hair, English, never stops smiling, used to play for Reading, the one you literally cannot keep your hands off of?” 

The hum of the engine was the only thing the two of them heard, the silence stretching for what seemed like forever.

Forever.

“Love is too strong of a word.”

“For now.”

“We haven’t even kissed.”

“For now.” 

“You’re safe, _for now_ , Thorisdottir, before I crash this goddamn car”

“Dear g-RELAX!” 

“HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO RELAX?”

“START BY ACTUALLY KISSING HER!”

“WOULD SHE LIKE THAT?”

“OH DON’T YOU WORRY CAPTAIN, I’M SURE SHE’D LIKE A LOT M-” 

A hand flew to cover Maria's mouth.

“DON’T YOU DARE-”

“You, uh, you drove past the apartment...” 

With a sigh, Maren turned the car around and drove up to their apartment. They got out of the relentless rain and quickly made their way up the stairwell to be greeted by the warmth of their apartment. Maren knew that Maria’s quietness meant she was either plotting something or too cold to function, as the rain made them both feel a chill in their bones. 

It was both.

When Maren remarked on how well dressed Maria looked after they got changed out of their drenched clothes and into warmer clothing, Maria sent a sickeningly sweet smile her way, thanking her and exclaiming,

“If I’m going to visit your girlfriend, I should look my best,” Before sprinting out the door and down the hallway, making sure to pocket the keys to the car the two of them shared beforehand. Maria could hear Maren nearly tripping on the carpet that padded the apartment building’s hallways as the brown haired woman tried to chase her down. She quickly made her way down the stairwell (thanks, footwork practice) before bursting through the building’s main doors and lunging towards the car, setting the vehicle in motion the moment she could. 

She stopped in the car park of a nearby restaurant and quickly texted Fran, asking her if she could come over, and with a quick approval, she made her way to the Englishwoman’s house.

Maria practically invited herself into Fran’s house, sitting them down on the couch. Fran looked at her, to which Maria simply raised an eyebrow at the now very startled forward.

“What?”

“So?”

“So what?”

“What’s the English slang for it?”

“What?”

“The English slang, confess...up?”

“...’fess up?”

“Yeah. Do that.”

“I...don’t-“

“Yes you do, your girlfriend tried to play the same game and it didn’t work. So, ‘fess...up.”

Fran’s eyes widened at the implicit mention of Maren, and they widened more at the thought of Maren being called her girlfriend. When they confided to each other that they both liked one another, they decided to take it slow and not put a name on it until they both knew what they were in. Hell, they haven’t even kissed. They both knew that it was probably, or definitely, time to actually start dating, but it seemed like they wanted to cherish being in their own bubble for as long as possible. Their nice, non-Maria Thorisdottir infiltrated bubble.

“What do you want me to say?”

“The truth.”

“That Maren and I are a thing?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, Maren and I are a thing.” 

“And?”

“Good lord, and what?”

“L-O-V-E.” 

Fran had an equally, if not more startled reaction to the four letter word than Maren did when Maria oh-so subtly brought it up on their pleasant car ride home. It pained Maria to admit, but she was kind of getting a kick out of this. Ok, it didn't pain her that much to admit it. Her first profession was as a soccer player. Her second? Certified clown. (She could juggle, ride a unicycle, and everything!)

“W-we haven’t eve-“

“We haven’t even kissed yet yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. I asked Maren and she already gave me the whole speech.”

“You WHAT?”

“What?”

“Love? You asked her if she loved me?”

“I didn’t really ask. More like stated. She had pretty much the same reaction as you.”

“But not a negative one, right? This wasn’t a negative reaction. I was just...caught off guard.”

“Not a negative one.” 

“What else did she say? Or do?”

“Besides almost killing us in a car accident? We just talked about how you two really need to finally gather some courage and make it official. Starting with kissing your girlfriend.”

The two held eye contact for a few more seconds after the second mention of the word “girlfriend” before Fran leapt to her feet, grabbed her keys off the nearest counter, and walked through the front door into the increasingly dark evening, with the rain still rhythmically pattering down. Fran reached her car when Maria emerged from her house with a triumphant smile. 

“I won’t go directly back to the apartment! I’ll take my time!”

Shooting her a final dirty look, Fran backed the car out of the driveway and made her way towards the Norwegian’s apartment. This was the moment, she was going to do this.

They both remember every detail of it.

The way Fran’s shaking hands turned off the ignition as she parked her car in front of the apartment building. The way she sat in her car for a few minutes, trying to gather the bravery she had in herself. The way she tried to confidently walk up the stairwell yet managed to almost trip on the slick stairs, as rain-soaked people trudging in and out of the building drenched them. The way she took a deep breath before cautiously ringing the doorbell, knowing that she looked like an absolute fool with dripping wet hair and rain-battered clothing. 

The way that Maren dropped the TV remote she was holding in surprise when she heard the familiar ringing of the doorbell. The way she already knew who it was before even cracking the door open. The way she gave one last glance into the mirror by the door to make sure she looked at least halfway decent. The way she quietly pulled the door open and made eye contact with the girl in front of her.

The way they both leaned in.

Maybe moments like these do last forever.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to the person who wrote this for letting me share! I have some things that I myself want to write, one of which is a fic for woso and the other is for league of legends. No idea when either will be finished though. I am still willing to take requests of any ship and any prompt!


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